Political Parties publish election promises for the tmt sector

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Political Parties publish election promises for the tmt sector --

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 10:17

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TechCentral has reported that South Africa s two largest political parties have published election promises specifically pertaining to the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) industries. The DA plans to break up the South African public broadcaster, the SABC, into various commercial entities and sell these to the highest bidder should it be elected to national government. Meanwhile, the ANC, in its newly launched election manifesto, has promised to bring free Wi-Fi to South Africa.

The DA laid out its plan in its policy document on information and communications technology, published ahead of its manifesto launch, due to take place in March. The ANC s plan to expand public access to information and communications can be found in its election manifesto, officially launched on 11 January 2014.

The DA s document says the privatisation process should be overseen by broadcasting regulator Icasa and the Competition Commission to ensure a diversity of ownership and voices in South African media. Under the DA s plan, TechCentral reports, the Government Communication and Information System, or GCIS, will continue to support community broadcasters by paying for a percentage of their broadcasting time to disseminate information from government departments while leaving the stations free to develop their own voice and content applicable to their audiences .

Public funding should be made available in each departmental budget for the development of documentary, educational and civic information content, to be broadcast through community and private channels, flighted in accordance with each channel s licensing conditions, the document states.

The ANC s manifesto promises that government will support and develop free Wi-Fi in cities, towns and rural areas. It plans to invest in the rapid expansion of broadband access across South Africa. The manifesto does not give any detail as to how the party plans to accomplish this. It plans to provide broadband access to all of the country s schools by 2020 and also for 90 percent of the population to have access to superfast broadband by the same year.

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